His Vampire Harem_Harem Paranormal Romance [Gay]

by Lily Harlem

  “I’ve already been invited in,” Rhys said.

  “So go.” A twist of hurt curled in my belly. I was the last of us to have any intimate time with Darius. And I longed for it, my body screamed for it. My cold, dark heart bled for it. Would it ever happen?

  Oscar pulled open the door. “Good, you’re here.”

  Rhys stepped inside then turned to me. “I’ll get him.”

  I nodded, thankful he understood my predicament.

  “It’s okay, I’m here.”

  Darius’s voice washed over me. It was like music to my heart, a breeze in my ears, which were always so acute. His voice, the depth, the way it vibrated through his throat, was something I could listen to for always.

  His gaze connected with mine and he blew out a breath through pursed lips. His arms hung at his sides, his torso was bare, and some kind of clan tartan adorned his nightwear.

  I licked my lips, not daring to imagine his flavor—the taste of his kisses, his cock, his blood.

  I want it all.

  Our gazes locked then he nodded and gestured for me to enter his home. “Come into my home, George. We were waiting for you.”

  Oscar curled his hand over Darius’s shoulder, as though giving him strength.

  “Thank you.” I stepped in. An unusual sense of urgency had invaded my thoughts. It was strange when I was used to time being so fluid, like a tap that would never switch off, a bird that would never stop singing. But here it was…time running out.

  Darius walked, looking like an Adonis, into the living area and sat on a seriously large and expensive looking white leather sofa. He crossed one leg over the other and spread his left arm over the back of the cushions.

  Oscar sat on one side of him, his dark features brooding. Lloyd hovered behind him, pacing with his hood up and his arms crossed. Rhys had pulled back a curtain and was looking out of the windows as if expecting a demon to slam into them at any moment.

  I pulled in a deep breath then walked into the room and perched my butt on the low oak table in front of the sofa.

  Leaning forward, I took Darius’s right hand in mine. “Start from the beginning.”

  “The beginning beginning?” he asked, allowing me to hold his hand in both of mine.

  “Yes, that will do.” I nodded.

  He pulled in a deep breath, his lips pursing a little. “In that case we’ll have to go back to when I was about thirteen.”

  “We can do that.” I managed a small smile, hoping that would reassure him.

  “Okay.” He glanced at Oscar, then at Lloyd.

  I was glad he was getting comfort from them, but equally I wanted him to know he could trust me, and that I, too, would always protect him and be there for him. His best interests, his body and soul, were my priority now.

  He has to know that.

  “When I was thirteen,” he said. “The dreams started.”

  “You can tell us everything,” Oscar said, his deep timbre echoing around the room.

  “Yeah, I know.” Darius nodded. “When I was thirteen my dreams became weird.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “They became more vivid, more full of color, and I could remember them the next day, as if they were coming back to haunt me.”

  I resisted sharing a look with Lloyd. This was something we’d talked about. Darius being so in tune with the underworld, whether he knew it or not, was going to manifest somehow. Dreams were an obvious choice for his demon father to contact him through as he waited for adulthood.

  “Go on.” I tilted my head, keen to hear every nuance in his articulation.

  “But it was the same dream nearly every time,” Darius said.

  “Recurring?” Rhys raised his eyebrows.

  “Yeah.” Darius glanced at him, then back to me. “Since I was thirteen, over and over, practically every night.”

  “Can you describe it?” I asked.

  He glanced at his chest and ran his hand over his pecs. “I’m on Tower Bridge and there’s this prisoner in a boat being taken toward the Tower of London.” He shook his head. “Before I couldn’t…see the prisoner, his face that is.”

  “But now you can?” I asked.

  His gaze connected with mine for a second then he shook his head. “Yes, and I know his name.”

  “And what is it?”

  “Benedict.”

  A surge of energy went through me. Master Benedict was in Darius’s dreams…what the heck?

  “But more than that,” Darius went on, “I know who the other man standing close to me is.”

  “Other man?” Lloyd asked, and looking as shocked as I felt at the mention of Master Benedict.

  “Yeah,” Oscar said. “The other man in his dream.”

  I nodded, a frown creasing my brow.

  Who the Hell is it? This other man standing close.

  Darius clenched his fists. “It’s my father.”

  “Fuck, what!” Rhys snapped the curtains closed and flicked his attention around the room, corner to corner, wall to wall. “Where?”

  “In his dream,” I said. It was as though a jigsaw puzzle was coming together in my brain. All the things I’d learned about the fable were slotting into place. “So let me get this straight. In your dream you’re back in time, in London, by the Tower, and there’s a prisoner and your father with you.”

  “Yeah, that’s the dream.” Darius sat forward, a new energy coming to him. I wondered if sparks were pricking at his fingertips.

  “Can you tell us more?” I asked.

  He glanced at Oscar, then over his shoulder at Rhys. “I can. I think.”

  “We’re all here for you,” I said. “You have to believe that.”

  “I do. And I believe you’re all here for my protection and to serve yourselves.” He glanced down at his feet.

  “Hey!” Lloyd said. “Serve ourselves?”

  “Yeah.” He pulled his hand from mine and twisted his fingers together. He was still looking at the floor. “Save your own souls.”

  “Saving our souls is important.” I grabbed his hand again and caught his cheek in my palm. “But saving you, and your soul is more important. You have to believe that.”

  He frowned, but at least he looked up at me.

  “In all our history,” I said, gentling my voice. “A cambion would be the freerer of souls, the key to escaping an eternity burning in Hell. You are he, Darius. We would be selfish individuals if we let anything happen to you when you have so much to give.”

  He turned away.

  Damn it. Now I sound as if I don’t care about him.

  “Please.” I sank onto my knees and rested my palms on his thighs. “We love you. We have since the moment we saw you. You’re all we want, you have to believe that.”

  I didn’t look at Rhys, Lloyd or Oscar. I was always the capable one. The guy who had it sussed. Dropping to one knee and begging wasn’t on my usual to-do list. It didn’t suit me, but needs must.

  “Darius,” I went on. “The key you have, the gift, and the beauty inside and outside of you is a rare thing. More than rare, it’s a once in a lifetime thing for us to experience, even a very long lifetime. Please, let us help you…let us in.”

  He locked his gaze on mine again. “Let you in?”

  “Yes. Into the darkest parts of your mind, into who you really are in your soul.”

  He glanced at Oscar. “Can you handle it?”

  “Try us.” Oscar folded his arms and his mouth twitched as if they’d shared some secret.

  Darius swallowed. “Okay.” He pulled in a breath. “When I dream…I’m a woman.”

  A silence descended.

  I was aware of Rhys and Lloyd sharing a look

  I kept my expression neutral. This was more than even I could have imagined. “Physically or mentally?” I asked.

  “Physically.” He frowned. “I’m always the same mentally….aren’t I?”

  “Yes, I suspect so.” I smiled, hoping I didn’t give away my surpr
ise at his revelation.

  “It makes perfect sense,” Lloyd said. “His father could switch between incubus and succubus depending on who he was seducing. The female and male forms are easy to switch from one to the other for a demon.”

  “But…” Darius gestured to his groin.

  I felt a small tremble in mine.

  “But,” he said again, “I’m very much male.” He glanced at Rhys, Oscar and Lloyd. “As you can all testify.”

  Again a twist of jealousy caught me. I soldiered on. “Yes, you’re male. But until you hit puberty I suspect you could have chosen between the two genders.”

  “What?” His eyes widened. “I could have chosen to be male or female?”

  “It’s just a guess,” I said, “but an educated one, going on what I know about incubi.”

  He tugged his hand from mine, folded his arms and slotted his palms into his pits.

  Oscar wrapped his arm around Darius’s shoulders and pulled him closer so their bodies touched.

  Darius didn’t resist. In fact he kind of wilted against him.

  “You can switch between genders, much like your father can,” I said. “Or at least you could have, until you reached puberty. Had you known that, perhaps you’d have become a woman.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” He paused. “Is that why I’m gay? In my dreams when I’m a woman, I’ve, on the odd occasion the reoccurring one hasn’t happened, dreamed of being with a man…intimately. Is that why I’m into men and not women? It’s the female in me?”

  “I have no idea.” I smiled. “Why is any one of us gay? I’m sure it’s for many different reasons.”

  Everyone was silent.

  Darius blew out a breath, then, “I can’t cope with being half female and half male on top of having a demon father, being immortal, and holding the key to saving vampires from an eternity burning in Hell.” There’d been a shake in his voice.

  “Shh.” Oscar stroked his hair. “It’s okay, babe.’

  Fuck! Oscar is the toughest hard nut around, yet for Darius he’s turned sappy.

  But seeing the look on Darius’s face, I wasn’t complaining. Oscar’s touch seemed to be soothing Darius’s anxieties and easing his nerves. The last thing we needed was for him to freak out.

  “George,” Lloyd said, nodding at the kitchen. “Can we…”

  “Yes. Of course.” I caught Oscar’s gaze as I stood.

  He nodded a little letting me know Darius was okay in his arms while Lloyd and I spoke.

  “We need to go to the Tower,” Lloyd said, as soon as we stepped into Darius’s sleek, modern kitchen.

  “I know.” I placed my hands on my hips and frowned. “This is reaching a tipping point. Darius’s father isn’t afraid to let him know he exists in daylight and at night.”

  “Which means he’s preparing to possess him. Once that happens, Darius will have a fate worse than death.”

  Just hearing those words was like having a stake driven through my heart. I swallowed as nausea churned my belly.

  Lloyd grimaced, as though experiencing the same discomfort.

  “We should go to the Tower now,” I said. “Right now.”

  “I don’t like risking him, but it makes sense.” Lloyd pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He tapped the base of the box and took one between his lips.

  “Not in here.” I frowned. “This is a nice place.”

  “Fuck,” he muttered, slipping the cigarette away, then the box. “I don’t like this, any of it.”

  “Me neither, but if we’re at the Tower, all of us together, and he turns up, we have a chance of defeating him. If he catches Darius in the day again, when only one set of eyes are on him, our odds are significantly decreased.”

  Lloyd nodded. “Yeah, it’ll take all of us.”

  “He’s going to be really fucking determined.”

  “And pissed that he can’t get the body he wants and has been waiting for.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at the living room. “Benedict is in his dream, Lloyd.”

  “Were you expecting that?”

  “No, but I always had an inkling he had a role in delivering this key.”

  “So what does it mean?”

  “It means we have to learn more about Master Benedict, perhaps delve into Darius’s dream a little deeper, find out what his intentions are, what he says.”

  “One thing is for sure, he’s leading us to the Tower of London.”

  “With our cambion.” A steely sense of determination speared through me. “So we have to go through with it and see what happens.”

  Lloyd nodded. His eyes were narrowed, his jaw tense.

  “It’ll be okay.” I clasped my hand on his shoulder. “This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

  “But there’s so much to lose. That beautiful man in there is innocent. If anything happens to him…”

  “It won’t. Don’t think like that.” I pulled in a breath. “We have to be strong for him, and don’t forget we’re a formidable group of guys when we’ve got our minds set.”

  “And they are set.” He tilted his chin. “On protecting the man we love.”

  “And finding the key so we can all be together, forever.”

  He nodded and I saw the fight in his eyes. Lloyd wasn’t going to let anything happen to Darius, he loved him as much as I did, that much was clear.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Darius

  “We’re going to the Tower of London…now?” I said.

  “Yes.” George nodded. “We need to face this head on and find out all we can while it’s fresh in your mind.”

  “But…” These guys were nuts. Wandering around the banks of the Thames after midnight wasn’t a sensible idea.

  “You have nothing to worry about.” George smiled, his handsome face lighting up. “You have four vampires with you, who all love you and would do anything for you. No mortal would stand a chance if they so much as looked at you the wrong way.”

  “It’s not mortals I’m worried about,” I muttered as I stood.

  Oscar rose too. “You don’t have to worry about anything.”

  I did, and I was. There was heat in my chest and in my shoulders. The familiar ache which turned to hot pain had spread down my arms. I was thankful I’d released sparks earlier in the shower, it meant I’d have control over them for the next few hours. “I’ll get my jacket.”

  While riding on the back of Oscar’s bike through the dark, I summoned my courage. My dreams had all been leading to this moment and it was time to face it head on.

  But that didn’t mean I was looking forward to it.

  Maybe nothing would happen. Perhaps we’d just have a night time stroll, see the moonlight on the river and spot a few bats swooping low for bugs.

  Oscar pulled the bike to a halt on Tower Bridge at the point I’d told him the dream began. Rhys, Lloyd and George were already there. I had no idea how they’d arrived so fast, Oscar said they’d run, but that was super-human speed.

  They are super-human.

  I climbed off and removed my helmet. It was strange to be in a place I’d only ever dreamed of. Although I’d lived in London for years, this bridge was out of my way and I’d only ever been over it in a cab.

  “Are you okay?” George asked, stepping near and stroking my upper arm over my denim jacket.

  I enjoyed his touch and his closeness. George fascinated me. He was obviously highly respected by the others and the great length of time he’d had on Earth had given him a wisdom which shone from his eyes. Eyes that looked fresh and young—like his handsome face—yet were really centuries old.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m okay. I just want to get this done, see if we can find out more about the key.”

  “And your father,” George said. “I’d very much like to take him out of the equation. That would protect you for always.”

  “How do you intend to do that?”

  “The only way to truly defeat a demon is to show him that love and goodnes
s is your armor, that way he’ll give up.”

  “Even one who wants his son?” After all this time of not having a father, it was strange to talk of one in connection to myself.

  “Darius,” Lloyd said. “Do not make the mistake of having affection for this demon. He created you for his own evil ends. He did not love your mother. In fact, he is incapable of love. He can’t and never will love you. It’s your perfect body he wants to inhabit. He does not care for your soul.”

  I shuddered. The whole idea of a demon possessing my body was beyond horrible. And George was right, the sooner he was out of the equation the better, then we could concentrate on finding the key. If we found that, and got rid of the demon, it would mean we were all safe from burning in Hell.

  I stepped up to the stone wall at the side of the bridge and looked down at the water. The silvery light of the moon shimmered off the gentle ripples.

  Finding myself rubbing my chest, I realized how used I’d become to seeing this sight as a female, with breasts, curves, a vagina. Now in my male form, it suddenly felt odd.

  Rhys stood next to me. His usually smiling face had been deathly serious since he’d arrived in my apartment. “Is that where you see the prisoner?” He pointed downward.

  “Yeah, he’s in a small wooden boat with two other men. One is rowing, one appears to be guarding him.”

  “And is he bound?” Oscar asked, moving to my other side.

  “His hands are shackled. I know now he wears a big cloak with a fur collar.”

  “That’s definitely Master Benedict.” There was surety in Lloyd’s voice. “He was known for that cloak, in fact at The Company his statue shows him wearing just that.”

  “It does.” George ran his hand down my back to my ass. “Usually you’re female when you’re here and the dream starts?”

  “Yeah.”

  He stroked my butt.

  I let him, enjoying the way his caresses soothed my mind and calmed my heart rate.

  “And then what?” he said by my ear. “Then what happens?”

  “There’s an old-fashioned car that goes past and a child begging.” I paused. “But it’s the prisoner I’m drawn to, so I walk down there.” I pointed at the steps leading to the bank of the river. “Only in my dream it’s more of a bank, and it’s cobbled at the base.”